Azure and Office 365 contribute to strong Q4 for Microsoft

Microsoft’s focus on the cloud is paying dividends and the software giant reported a strong fourth quarter with revenues of $20.6bn.

Microsoft reported that it had 23.1m Office 365 consumers signed up and that it grew Azure cloud revenue 102pc from a year ago.

The company’s Surface hardware group grew revenue 9pc.

The strong performance yielded Microsoft a profit of $3.1bn for the quarter.

The cloud strategy is central to what Microsoft is now about and, in June, we reported that some 1,600 construction jobs will be created in Dublin to facilitate four new data centres.

“This past year was pivotal in both our own transformation and in partnering with our customers who are navigating their own digital transformations,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer at Microsoft.

“The Microsoft Cloud is seeing significant customer momentum and we’re well positioned to reach new opportunities in the year ahead.”